High-humidity environment will make trees last longer

Freshly cut from the mountains of western North Carolina and delivered to Trad's Nursery in Jacksonville are 500 Christmas trees, some small and some tall, a week before Thanksgiving.

"We get Fraser Firs, con colors and blue spruce trees, and the lot this year looks absolutely fantastic, they're very fresh," said Chris Trad.

He said that freshness is important with more than a month until Christmas Day.

Tree buyers should ask the supplier when its delivery arrived.

But will trees purchased now even make it through the Christmas season without losing their foliage and drying up?

"We have customers come back every single year raving about how they kept their tree up way past New Year's and they were just taking it down, which I find sort of crazy, but nonetheless, and they're so excited about how long the foliage stays on the tree," Trad said.

He said Fraser Firs hold their leaves the longest, followed by the con color species, but it's important to get them in water immediately and avoid low humidity environments.

"If you have a fire burning or your humidity in your house is real low, that's definitely going to affect how much water your tree's going to uptake," Trad said. "So sort of the more humid you keep the house -- even though we all run heat and air conditioning -- but the more humid that house is, the longer the leaves are going to stick. Consequently, the less heat, so keep it away from the fireplace."

Christmas trees take an average of six to eight years to harvest and will run anywhere from $30 to $600.

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